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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Health Tomorrow: A Senate Public Option Debate

Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 5:34 PM

Health insurance reformers, Cantwell-watchers, and all other interested parties: take note. Tomorrow will bring a big debate in the Senate Finance Committee over whether the Baucus Bill needs to include a public option.

It currently doesn't, but New York Senator Charles Schumer and Washington Senator Maria Cantwell are pushing an amendment that would swap out Baucus's "co-op compromise" for a more serious public option.

"We're going to have a full blown debate in the Finance Committee," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a backer of the public option. While it may be an "underdog," Schumer said, "don't count it out."

Cantwell's office says tomorrow's debate could start "at any time." If I get a heads up before it begins, I'll definitely pass it along. But if you're the type of health insurance reform advocate who doesn't want to risk missing a moment, there's another alternative: bookmark this.

Comments (7) RSS

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Tomorrow I'm sure the full blown debate will be riveting. But today, police and protesters are also having a debate at the G20 summit. Several youtube vids already up.

Posted by dnt trust me on September 24, 2009 at 5:43 PM

Indeed, @1. I'm actually feeling fairly sympathetic towards the protesters too. If I remember correctly, they had asked for permits to protest peacefully, and were told the nearest they could come was something like 15 miles away. I'd be pretty pissed-off too.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on September 24, 2009 at 5:57 PM

I'm looking forward to the single payer national health care plan they'll swap in for the current GOP-written fiasco.

That will be sweet.

As to the G-20, I don't think a mere couple of hundred protesters stack up against Turin or Seattle in terms of what we did over the WTO and even G-8.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on September 24, 2009 at 6:02 PM

"Im looking forward to the single payer national health care plan"

it's gonna be a long wait ....

Posted by Davy on September 24, 2009 at 8:27 PM

I think most of this is being put off until next week, as the Senate is quitting at noon today, so they can have a three and half day weekend. Their lives are hard.

Posted by meowmeowkitty on September 25, 2009 at 9:12 AM